The Chaperone (PBS) - General Discussion

[chitowngirl]

Louise Brooks is a rebellious 15-year-old schoolgirl who dreams of fame and fortune in the early 1920s. She soon gets her chance when she travels to New York to study with a leading dance troupe for the summer -- accompanied by a watchful chaperone.

[proserpina65]

Did anyone else watch this last night?  I thought it was interesting but covered too much too quickly for it to really work.

[chitowngirl]

It could have easily been 2-2 hour episodes. But I enjoyed it immensely!

I was surprised that Norma seemed shocked that her mother didn’t want her “new” family to know about her. Did she think a girl who got pregnant at 16 in the late 1800s and was sent away to have her baby would really tell anyone about it? But Elizabeth McGovern conveyed Norma’s hurt very well. 

[Quilt Fairy]

6 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

It could have easily been 2-2 hour episodes. But I enjoyed it immensely!

I was surprised that Norma seemed shocked that her mother didn’t want her “new” family to know about her. Did she think a girl who got pregnant at 16 in the late 1800s and was sent away to have her baby would really tell anyone about it? But Elizabeth McGovern conveyed Norma’s hurt very well. 

Yes, there were several instances where obviously modern sensibilities replaced what would have been the cultural norms of the time.  Two that stood out for me were when Louise revealed that she had an affair with her much older Sunday school teacher and Norma shouted at her "What happened to you was abuse!" , and then at the end in 1942 where we have one perfect blended family that includes Norma's lover (still playing her brother) as well as her husband's male lover all sitting amiably at the dinner table.  Wowza.  That one would raise eyebrows even today.  I don't know if that attitude was in the original novel or Julian Fellowes added it in the screenplay.

I wasn't prepared to like it because I'm not a fan of Elizabeth McGovern, but I got pulled in after a few minutes and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Quilt Fairy

[Pickles]

Norma’s accent throws me off. Sometimes she sounds southern. Other times she drops the g’s off of her words—readin, walkin, etc. The girl she is chaperoning is quite short to be a dancer. Idk. This isn’t holding my interest for some reason. 

[nx74defiant]

On 11/27/2019 at 3:06 PM, Pickles said:

The girl she is chaperoning is quite short to be a dance

Not sure how tall the average  dancer was in the 1920`s. If you ever watch  "So You  Think You Can Dance" you  would see that Cat Deely (whose height is stated to be 5`9" on her IMD page) towers over almost  all of the dancers.

Edited December 2, 2019 by nx74defiant

[proserpina65]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 4:06 PM, Pickles said:

The girl she is chaperoning is quite short to be a dancer

Louise Brooks was 5 ft 2 in tall in real life.  Keep in mind this was modern dance, rather than ballet where there tend to be very strict height requirements.

[EtheltoTillie]

I loved this. I didn’t find this topic till today and just by accident. They really sanitized Louise Brooks’s horrible life story, but it really was about the chaperone character.